The article deals with the position of the SPD vis-à-vis Franco's Spain since the mid 1960s, and explains it in the context of the party's foreign policy agenda aimed at promoting European détente. It is argued that SPD leaders backed Madrid's intention to get closer to the EEC because this would, in their eyes, boost the modernization of Spain and strengthen pro-European and pro-democratic tendencies in the country, leading to the self-dissolution of the dictatorship after Franco's death. It also examines the scarce influence of the left wing of the party in its claim of putting effective pressure on the regime to force its democratisation. Finally, it shows how the fear that the Portuguese revolution after 1974 could alter the expected peaceful transition in Spain moved the SPD to strongly support Spanish socialists unwilling to join the democratic front leaded by the Spanish communists. //